Category: Male Fertility

The stress related to a diagnosis of infertility parallels what is experienced with a cancer diagnosis or grief of the loss of a loved one. We all recognize that stress has a negative impact on our health and can impact fertility. However, most of what we know has been from studies based on the female partner. New research demonstrates that the stress of infertility on male partners should be considered as well.

Nearly 50% of men seeking IVF reported symptoms of depression. 50%! This study found that although major depression is more common in female partners than in male partners, it can still have a significant impact on fertility success. Couples in which the male partner had major depression were 60% less likely to conceive and have a live birth than those in which the male partner did not have depression.

Although this study shows an association between male depression and decreased likelihood of success with fertility treatments, it leaves many questions about whether one causes the other unanswered. What this study does a great job at, however, is demonstrating the need for us to focus on the health of all our families prior to conception.

Take Home Points:

Infertility and the associated treatments are a major life stressor.

Depression during fertility treatments can be common, in both female and male partners

Untreated depression in men may decrease fertility

Talk to your REI and primary care doctor if you think depression is impacting your life

Nearly 40-50% of couples who are having trouble getting pregnant have a male factor impacting their ability to conceive. Part of the evaluation includes performing a semen analysis, which measures how much sperm is produced. These results can help us learn if there is a male factor contributing to your infertility.

The majority of preconception counseling involves preparing a woman for a healthy pregnancy. I go even further and encourage your entire family to make positive changes to their nutrition when trying to conceive. Not only will you all become healthier, which will enhance your fertility as a couple, but you will also keep one another motivated because it’s hard work!

We have previously reviewed what guys can do to boost their fertility and improve their numbers on this test. A recent study adds to this: what you eat impacts your semen analysis results and, ultimately, how easy it is for a couple to conceive. Men who stick to a healthy diet were found to have more sperm and a greater number of swimming sperm. This suggests that men with poor sperm counts could potentially improve their numbers with their nutrition when trying to conceive.

So keep up the good work and continue to motivate one another to be the healthiest you can be when trying to conceive. Fertility and enhancing fertility is a team effort.

In my fertility clinic, much of the discussion about pre-conception counseling, or what should be done to prepare for a healthy pregnancy, focuses on the female. We discuss a woman’s diet, vitamins, immunization status, supplements, exercise habits and more. New research is suggesting that dad needs to be involved in this health optimization before starting a family.

Epigenetics is a new hot term in science. We all have DNA, which is a roadmap of genes that encode the proteins that are expressed that make our bodies work. To describe it simply, epigenetics is the field that ensures that these genes are expressed at the right time, the right place, and the right amount. My research over the past three years has focused on epigenetics.

I am passionate about learning how our environment impacts our fertility. Epigenetics is an emerging link to learning about your environment and how it may impact your genetic health: most toxins in our environment are not strong enough to cause DNA damage and mutations, but are able to impact gene expression, and ultimately the health of an individual, by altering epigenetic profiles. Exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals in our environment, like those commonly found in plastics, induce epigenetic changes in sperm. Worse yet, these changes can be transmitted to future generations.

Recent studies suggest that epigenetic changes may be the key mechanism by which paternal factors such as age and weight contribute to health outcomes in their kids. For example, dads who smoke have children that are more likely to be overweight. Similarly, dads that are obese are more likely to have obese children as a result of epigenetic changes.

Dads- don’t lose hope. There are early indications that some paternal lifestyle-associated effects on sperm can be reverse through exercise, diet, and/or surgical weight loss. In my practice, I like to focus on the couple becoming the healthiest they can be before conceiving. Because ultimately, our goal is similar: we don’t just want to help you get pregnant, we want to help you be a healthy and happy family for generations to come.

If you’d like to take some steps to reduce the impact of your environment on your fertility, consider the following:

We’ve already provided pretty compelling reasons why it is worthwhile to avoid these chemicals with a funny name but now there is even more evidence. A new study has now found that these chemicals can reduce the chance that a man’s sperm will make a healthy embryo. Bottom line is that paying careful attention to your potential exposure risk with both your chances of having a healthy pregnancy and a healthy home to raise your child.

Here are some easy steps that you can take to begin reducing your phthalate level today:

Only use nail polishes that are phthalate free—most add a phthalate called DBP to reduce chipping

Don’t microwave or cook your food in plastic containers or use plastic utensils to eat hot foods—heat leaches this chemical out of the plastics and into food—the easiest pathway into your body

Avoid plastic bottles—seek out glass or metal instead. When you must use plastic seek out bottles with the #2, #4 and #5 in the recycle triangle

Avoid perfumes and scented products—phthalates (DEP) are used to prolong fragrances

Don’t use air fresheners—most contain phthalates

Avoid vinyl containing products—many products like lawn furniture, rain coats or shower curtains can not only release phthalates that can be inhaled but they can also be absorbed through the skin as well.

The impact of lifestyle upon male fertility is very difficult to study and therefore rarely gets much scrutiny. In previous posts, I have referenced studies on how healthy sleep and melatonin levels impact egg quality. Now we have a new study that found that men that sleep less than 6 hours per night or more than 9 hours per night seem less fertile than those within the 6 to 9 hour time range. Although further research would be needed to confirm the validity of this study, it could be that sleep is impacting your ability to conceive with your partner.

Too often the entire focus of fertility recommendations are directed towards women. It is true that egg quality is the single most important factor in determining conception. That said, a healthy egg cannot overcome sperm with damaged DNA. So, let’s provide some guidance for what men should be doing with their food choices to improve the chance of a successful conception. http://nutritionfacts.org/video/male-fertility-and-diet/

It feels great to be blogging again. I figured the best was to re-start this blog was to provide an update and summary on how these remarkable techniques have grown and developed as well as summarizing their current success and limitations. The technique of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) has become the gold-standard of fertility treatment both for its diagnostic value as well as its high success rates compared to other treatment options. It is currently estimated that over 5,000,000 people have been born using IVF since the first reported success in 1978. In 2012 about 1% of all births in the USA —a total of 65,160 babies—were conceived and born through IVF. So let’s first consider the safety of this technology.

A recent report summarized the safety of Assisted Reproductive Technology in the US by reviewing all of the available data from 2000 to 2011. This analysis included 1.14 million IVF cycles in order to determine the incidence of medical complications within 12 weeks of the procedure. They were looking for complications like infection, bleeding, adverse reaction to medications, anesthetic complications and Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS). OHSS was the most common complication and occurred in about 1.54% (154 times in 10,000 cycles). Even this It was rare for any complications to require hospitalization which occurred in 0.35% (35 times in 10,000 cycles). Best of all, the incidence of complications—including adverse medical reactions—declined throughout the time period analyzed.

Importantly, as the pregnancy rates have increased; ART treatment is also resulting in the birth of healthier babies. For instance a 20 year review of cycles performed in the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark demonstrated a remarkable decline in the incidence of preterm birth or with low birth rate. They also found a similar reduction in still birth and infant mortality. The most important contributing factor to this remarkable success is that these countries have a national policy of transferring only one embryo at a time. The practice of elective single embryo transfer (ESET) is rapidly becoming the norm in the US as well. Another reassuring finding was that the risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) was not increased in children born through IVF; a fear that many had theorized before the data was available to review.

Finally, a recent report on the increased use of Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) as a technique to fertilize eggs was recently misinterpreted—in my opinion—rather cynically by the popular critics. ICSI was a treatment first used in 1992 to overcome severe male factor infertility. This report revealed that the use of ICSI has doubled during the last two decades even though the incidence of male factor infertility has remained steady. Their reports suggested it was being used unnecessarily. As a clinician however I know that many couples have multiple factors contributing to their infertility challenge. Even with a normal sperm count, the sperm may not be able to penetrate the egg; either because the sperm is too weak or because the egg shell (zona) is too tough. Either way, this technique overcomes either challenge. In fact, this recent study found that the rate of “failed fertilization” was markedly reduced by the wider use of ICSI. Another important benefit of using ICSI routinely is that it makes it possible to minimize the risk of a good egg being fertilized by an abnormal sperm. The end result is that ART becomes increasingly safer and more effective and ICSI is one aspect that has contributed to that success.

If you’d like to estimate your own unique chance of a achieving a successful pregnancy through IVF, check out the following link to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology: https://www.sartcorsonline.com/Predictor/Patient . There you can answer a few short questions about your current situation and you’ll be given your own personalized IVF cycle prognosis using the statistics from the SART National Database (2006-2012). The results from your center may vary but this should give you an excellent reference point to have further discussions with your reproductive healthcare provider.